Stephen Richards Quotes
When you forgive, it does not mean that you have submitted, it simply means that you have made a choice to stop bearing any grudge.
You are the custodian of your own happiness. What other people say, do or think does not create a basis for your happiness. It is you who decides your own happiness, just like forgiveness.
The heart is where the journey of forgiveness begins.
Locking ourselves in the situation where we wish for sympathy and want to be looked at as the aggrieved party normally makes us powerless.
The moment we become forgivers, then we are in line to enjoy the benefits of forgiveness.
The idea of forgiveness is a journey that requires patience. If the journey of forgiveness is well travelled, there is a chance that we are bound to change in a very helpful way.
Sometimes we are very convinced that what we went through needs to be re-lived so we end up going back and forth to the demons of the past and eventually we fail to get over them.
Forgiveness does not change the past, that’s for sure, but it does change the future.
The minute we put aside our self-righteousness and move away from being the aggrieved, then we are on a healing process.
The only thing that will make us remain glued to being the victim is our failure to handle the emotions that we go through and the pain that overcomes us.
When you make up your mind to forgive, your happiness will almost automatically follow.
In an unforgiving world, chaos rules.
When you forgive, you immerse yourself in healing waters.
When you forgive, you are freed from some of the feelings of disapproval and it can contribute to lessening your negative thoughts.
Offer yourself forgiveness as a gift. The word ‘give’ is the basic keyword in the word forgiveness, therefore it relays a meaning therein.
Your forgiveness or failure to forgive simply takes you nearer or further away from your ultimate goal. There are no two ways to deal with it, there is only one.
Blaming other people inevitably makes us blame ourselves because if we are pointing the finger at someone, practically, we are pointing it at ourselves as well.
We are often so convinced that we are so hurt and in pain, so much so that we opt not to forgive. Yet, as a consequence, that is what will make you weak!
Just because you have been through a bad experience does not give you the ticket to keep going back to that situation over and over again and dramatizing it out of proportion.
Overly playing the role of the victim can debar you from accepting responsibility for your actions and emotions.
Being joyous or happy is not something you should feel guilty about.
The idea of always wanting to be the victim in circumstances where you have been offended is a common human trait. Each person wants to be viewed as the aggrieved party.
Do the forgiveness and carry on going forward. Leave the worrying to the other person. Eat what is on your plate and leave the rest to them.
In the process of forgiveness, you can only control your own actions and decisions.
Assuming you are still lost in thought about when exactly you should forgive someone, well the time is NOW.
Distancing yourself from some painful event is probably the ignition for the process of forgiveness.
Failing to forgive yourself for certain wrongs you committed in the past can create self-dislike.
Other people may well not find it relevant that you have forgiven yourself, but you need to know that it is not for them anyway. Everything at the moment is wholly about you.
A broken and mended relationship turns out to be stronger than one that has never been broken, almost like how bones can become even stronger once broken and then healed.
Take a walk through the garden of forgiveness and pick a flower of forgiveness for everything you have ever done.
Forgiveness is not simply a single act, it is a full process.
All the resentment that lies in your heart is simply causing damage to you mostly.
The moment we see beyond our personal desires to be felt sympathy for, that is the time we can actually start the journey to that final destination of true forgiveness.
If we studied the issue of forgiveness with a wider perspective, we are bound to opt for it after all.
Forgiveness does carry with it numerous obstacles and one may well be surprised why many people find it a very difficult hurdle to jump over.
The most basic method one can use to let go of the past is by looking at it as a learning experience.
Remember, forgiveness is not a millstone but a milestone!
Do not allow yourself to be pulled into the role of embracing victimship as some sort of badge of honor to wear or flash around at any opportunity.
This pain you are avoiding is a very necessary pain that will make you strong again.
When you are focused on what you're doing, you are not going to miss the next opportunity ... it's more likely that you get more!
We invent what we need to get us by, but in doing so we are really continuing to hold on to the pain of yesterday.
You can learn to heal yourself, learn to understand that the pain you feel today is the strength you feel tomorrow!
Pain can cause us to learn no end of lessons, but without resolution there can be no healing!
The pain you have gone through will give you the strength of character to come through it all, so long as you learn from what you have suffered then it was not suffering at all.
What you have suffered after you have healed will make perfect sense.
You are not, though, forgiving so as to let others off with things. You are forgiving so that you can empower yourself to get over it and become strong.